Despite HC order, hemophilia patients still suffering

New Delhi: There is complete indifference of government hospitals towards hemophilia - the disease affecting males in which the patient's blood does not clot due to absence of the clotting factor. This, despite a High Court ruling last year that government hopitals in Delhi must start providing patients with the following:

Following this, Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Guru Tegh Bahadur hospitals were selected by the government to do their bidding. But it has been nine months since the High Court's intervention and the plight of patients remains the same.

One such patient, Rama Shankar says, "I have gone to LNJP hospital over 50 times in the last month. They are not providing me with the required injection. They say it's too expensive."

Another patient, Amit Gulati adds, "I got the medicine at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital, but only after a delay of two hours and my condition had become worse by then."

For one-year-old Devansh, who also suffers from hemophilia, it is just the beginning of a life-long struggle.

His father, Dharmendra says, "At Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital, they said they had no idea how to administer the medicine. The nurse in LNJP abused us."

However, hospitals have their share of explanations.

MS Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital, Dr Avneendra Prasad says, "We are not getting some hemophilia factors due to high prices. We are trying our best, but there is no way we can check their quality. We can only know if the medicine is any good after it has been administered."

A single shot of the factor can cost as much as Rs 4,000. With patients needing three-four shots a month on an average, proper implementation of the court ruling is crucial.